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This week on National Geographic Weekend host Boyd Matson speaks with guests about the King James Bible, running with wild dogs, the city life, visiting Japan’s nuclear no-go zone, leopards in Afghanistan, the largest insect in the world, running a crazy river, snowboarding with the best, why chimpanzees share, and using nuclear bombs to create, not destroy.

HOUR 1

• The power and beauty of the King James Bible has touched millions of people over the past 400 years. But the story of the book’s origins is also fascinating, says Adam Nicolson, author of “The Bible of King James” in the December 2011 National Geographic magazine. Nicolson joins Boyd to talk about this masterpiece.

• Filmmaker Kim Wolhuter lives among the animals he films in Africa. Wolhuter introduces Boyd to the wild dogs he has been following for years and explains what differentiates these canines from your household pet.

• People all over the world are streaming into cities. More than half of the world’s 7 billion people now live in urban areas. This might be a very good thing for the planet. In the December 2011 National Geographic magazine article “The City Solution,” author Robert Kunzig says cities may be the cure for our planet’s growing pains.

• In March 2011, thousands of Japanese fled the tsunami and resulting nuclear meltdown. The world they left behind is documented in the December 2011 National Geographic magazine article “Japan’s Nuclear Refugees.” Boyd speaks with author Lucille Craft, who visited the nuclear exclusion zone near Japan’s damaged Fukushima nuclear plant.

• David Braun, editor of National Geographic Daily News, joins Boyd to talk about leopards and poachers in Afghanistan.

HOUR 2

• National Geographic grantee Mark Moffett has found the world’s biggest bug. The 7-inch cricket, found in New Zealand, weighs three times as much as a mouse. Moffett joins Boyd to talk about how he found and held the massive bug and fed it a carrot.

• In his new book Crazy River: Exploration and Folly in East Africa, author Richard Grant writes about his descent of an unexplored river in Tanzania. Grant tells Boyd about cheating death by dodging hippos, crocodiles, and bullets.

• Travis Rice is one of National Geographic’s 2012 Adventurers of the Year. Although he’s considered the best all-around snowboarder in the world, he is still a disappointment to his father. Boyd talks to Rice about the reasons for that.

• National Geographic Emerging Explorer Jill Pruetz has been living with and studying Fongoli savanna chimpanzees in Senegal for years. She recently discovered that chimps share food and hunting tools with other chimps. Pruetz tells Boyd about her new discoveries.

• Boyd talks about visiting a site in the American West where nuclear bombs were once tested for peaceful, constructive purposes.

Listen to National Geographic Weekend

The power and beauty of the King James Bible has touched millions of people over the past 400 years. But the story of the book’s origins is also fascinating, says Adam Nicolson, author of “The Bible of King James” in the December National Geographicmagazine. Nicolson joins Boyd to talk about this masterpiece.

Filmmaker Kim Wolhuter lives among the animals he films in Africa. Wolhuter introduces Boyd to the wild dogs he has been following for years and explains what differentiates these canines from your household pet.

People all over the world are streaming into cities. More than half of the world’s 7 billion people now live in urban areas. This might be a very good thing for the planet. In the December National Geographicmagazine article “The City Solution,” author Robert Kunzig says cities may be the cure for our planet’s growing pains.

Last March, thousands of Japanese fled the tsunami and resulting nuclear meltdown. The world they left behind is documented in the December National Geographicmagazine article “Japan’s Nuclear Refugees.” Boyd speaks with author Lucille Craft, who visited the nuclear exclusion zone near Japan’s damaged Fukushima nuclear plant.

National Geographic grantee Mark Moffett has found the world’s biggest bug. The 7-inch cricket, found in New Zealand, weighs three times as much as a mouse. Moffett joins Boyd to talk about how he found and held the massive bug and fed it a carrot.

National Geographic Emerging Explorer Jill Pruetz has been living with and studying Fongoli savanna chimpanzees in Senegal for years. She recently discovered that chimps share food and hunting tools with other chimps. Pruetz tells Boyd about her new discoveries.